Read Online The Single Dad's Marriage Wish (Bachelor Dads) by Carol Marinelli - Free Book Online Page A

concern the doctor was talking about?’ Vince still stared at Charlotte, but this yorker was one Hamish was ready to bat and taking a deep breath he was about to face it, only Charlotte was already there, answering Vince’s most difficult question with the most direct of answers.
    ‘That he may well die.’ Her voice was clear as she delivered brutal words that even the most experienced, most senior of staff struggled with. Suddenly Hamish was back in the intensive care unit, sitting in a room so similar to this one, clinging to the words Ned, his friend and colleague, had gently delivered.
    ‘Hold her hand and talk to her, Hamish.’
    ‘Can she hear me?’
    ‘I hope so.’
    ‘Is there any chance…?’
    ‘Of course there’s a chance.’ After the longest of pauses, Ned had nodded. ‘Where there’s life there’s hope, Hamish.’
    God, how he’d clung to that—clung to the old adage as he’d clung to Emma’s pale hand, willing her to live with kisses, words and tears, because if a neurosurgeon had said there was hope, then surely he’d meant it.
    But there had been no hope.
    The second her CT scan had appeared on the screen, Ned would have known that, known that the only thing keeping this beautiful vital woman breathing had been the machine pushing air into her lungs—that behind her still perfect features her brain had been putty. How Hamish had wanted to ram all his anger at Ned when the truth had hit—payback for those wretched, tortured hours where he’d dared to believe that Emma might come back to him, that Bailey might grow up with a mother, and all because it had seemed better at the time than telling him the stark truth.
    Whether he realised it or not, Vince was a lucky man.
    ‘Is there any hope?’
    For a full minute the room had been silent, only it hadn’t been uncomfortable, the two men lost in their thoughts as Charlotte had patiently sat. It was Vince who had, in his own time, broken it.
    ‘We’ll know more soon,’ Hamish answeredcarefully. Ronan, even in this most fragile state, had more hope than Emma had ever had, but realistically his heart could stop again at any time. ‘We haven’t given up on him by any means.’
    ‘Can I see him?’
    ‘Of course,’ Hamish said gently, standing up to take Vince to see his son. ‘If we ask you to step aside…’
    ‘I won’t get in the way, Doctor—I know he needs you lot more than me right now.’
    And then Hamish did the strangest thing—something he’d never done, even before Emma’s death had frozen him on the inside. As they reached Ronan, Hamish reached out and gripped the other man’s arm to support him as he surveyed the shell of his son, offered him a little piece of himself that wasn’t just a doctor. ‘I’m so sorry for all you’re going through.’
    ‘Thanks.’ Vince gulped. ‘That means a lot.’
    ‘As I’ve said, these wounds are just the tip of the iceberg,’ Hamish explained to the gathered group of doctors and nurses, pointing to the two black burns on Vince’s feet. ‘The electricity entered his body here.’ Hamish held up a limp hand. ‘And his feet are where the electricity exited the body.’ Leaning under the trolley, he pulled out Ronan’s gumboots and showed them to the gathered crowd—the two holes clearly visible. ‘If it can do this to boots, then you can imagine the damage it’s wreaked inside to nerves, veins and arteries on its journey. Did you want to join us?’ Hamish asked as Charlotte popped her head around the door and interrupted his impromptu lecture.
    ‘ICU just called—they’re ready for Ronan.’
    ‘Fine…’ Hamish nodded as the crowd dispersed, stepping back as she ran a final set of obs on Ronan, and for the second time his arm caught Charlotte’s—waiting till she was finished with the patient before discreetly drawing her aside.
    ‘I think you make a very good teacher!’
    ‘Thanks but, no, thanks!’ Hamish shook his head and smiled, but it faded, his voice more